Overcoming Car-Oriented Attitudes

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Overcoming Car-Oriented Attitudes

• Elly Blue
• Steph Routh
• Corey Schuster Meghan Sinnott

Portland Oregon, USA
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Overview

• Introduction
• Case study The Rebanal Family
• Breakout groups
• Share results
• Conclusion

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Car Culture
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Prom
Dive-through Fast Food
Wedding Traditions
Drive-through Bank Tellers
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Cultural Change

• If driving werent sexy, we wouldnt be giving
  this presentation

If driving werent sexy, we wouldnt be giving
this presentation
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However
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Portland Transportation History

• We stopped the Mt Hood Freeway
• Waterfront freeway --gt waterfront park
• Long history of citizen activists

www.streetfilms.org
www.streetfilms.org
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How do you overcome car-oriented attitudes?
How do you overcome car-oriented attitudes?
Infrastructure if you build it, they will come
Encouragement marketing, education, incentives,
and peer pressure these hopefully add up to
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Portland Urban Design

• Proximity Neighborhood-oriented development
• Transit-oriented development
• Streetcar

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Portland Transit

• Great transit system -- Light Rail, bus
• Narrow residential streets, bike boulevards,
  transit mall (pics?)

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Comprehensive Combination of Transportation Option
s
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Clean and Convenient Bus Mall
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Take your bike on the MAX
Take your bike on the bus!
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Portland Bicycle City

• Highest share of bike trips in nation
• (5 overall to up to 25 in certain
  neighborhoods, as compared to less than 1 in
  USA)
• Best Bicycling City in USA Gold Status
• History of bicycle-friendly politicians

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Portland Challenges

• Car-oriented design
• Highways inside the city
• Polarization (bikes vs cars)
• Cost of living driving people to edges (where
  cost of driving gets em)

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Meet the Rebanal Family
Meet the Rebanal Family
Olivia, 31
David, 30
Tatiana, 4
Ophelia, 7

• Olivia, 31, David, 30
• Ophelia, 7 Tatiana, 4

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Transportation Profile Before

• Previously lived carfree in New York City
• Drove every day when moved to Portland 4 years
  ago
• Olivia switched to bus a year ago for work and
  school trips
• Family participated in Low-Car Diet program this
  July

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Infrastructure Proximity

• The Rebanals live in a dense, walkable
  neighborhood
• Their neighborhood has been developed after the
  addition of a Light Rail stop three years ago

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Infrastructure Transit

• They live on two frequent service bus lines and
  near the Light Rail
• Online trip planning
• Transit Tracker--check the status of all buses

Portland metro transit is easy to use
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Infrastructure Bicycling

• Bikes and bike gear for hauling kids
• Bike lanes and low-traffic streets nearby
• Bike racks on bus

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Encouragement

• Government Programs
• SmartTrips
• Bikepooling/Bike to Work Day
• Bike Commute Challenge
• Free bus pass from work
• Community support
• Friends with other carfree familiesStrong
  carfree community (eg, bikeportland.org)
• Low-Car Diet

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Challenges

• Not enough support from programs
• Equipment failure
• Cant bring full bike setup on transit
• Some trips are too far to bike, no transit
  available (or buses stop at 930pm)
• Not enough education and outreach to families
• Community they wish they could meet more carfree
  families!

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Transportation Profile After

• Live, go to school, more centrally
• Olivia telecommutes, takes daughters to school by
  bike, bus, and foot
• David commutes 3.5 miles by bike and bus

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• We probably drive up to 2 days a week, bike 1-2
  days a week, bus 1-2 days a week. On the
  weekends, we have car-free days, but then
  car-full days as well.
• Low-car lifestyle
• Our goal is to maintain a no-car diet at least 3
  days a week
• We will never be a car-free family.

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• There are plenty of families out there who would
  like to use alternative transport, but they need
  encouragement, advice, guidance. This is a
  barrier that I personally hope to address in the
  future. They say children are our future. I
  want my kids to ride buses and bikes regularly as
  their primary transportation. We want to instill
  the value of non-car transportation in them.
• - Olivia Rebanal

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Breakout groups

• How would the Rebanals situation be different in
  your community? The same?
• What could the government do to help them?
• What could businesses do?
• What can activists do?
• What is your advice for Rebanals?

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Picture for breakout
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Conclusion

• What shall we conclude?